MISSISSAUGA – Is 5G a revolution, or an evolution? That's the question addressed by participants in the 5G panel at the Canadian Telecom Summit.
Moderated by Eric Smith, VP, regulatory affairs at the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA), the panel included Ian Fogg, VP analysis at OpenSignal, Sean Newman, SVP and director PM at Corero Network Security, Alexander Brock, SVP technology strategy, innovation and partnerships at Rogers, and Anoop Kulkarni, global head of 5G NCS at Nokia.
"It's an interesting challenge to have a panel on a subject that comes up in every panel," Smith said. "When I got the assignment, I did what any deep thinker does: I Googled 'is 5G an evolution or revolution?'." The results, he said, varied from headlines saying 5G will be as revolutionary as electricity for the automobile and '5G, don't believe the hype', to '5G is a CIA plot'.
First, he asked panelists to provide their thoughts on how 5G is an evolution.
"A lot depends on the timing," Fogg said. "5G isn't going to be with us for just one or two years, but for 10 or 20 years. The initial deployments of 5G are very early versions of this technology around enhancing smartphone user experience, and perhaps fixed wireless as well. Maximum speeds vary by country. That's why we're hearing people say it's an evolution, it's overhyped."
But, he went on, looking farther ahead, it could be completely revolutionary.
Added Newman, "I think, as someone who's more of a security guy than an expert in 5G networks, it feels more like it's potentially an evolution that's going to lead to a revolution."
He explained since the technology is still in its infancy, he doesn't expect it to reach its full potential for two or three years. Once new applications with low latency begin to be deployed, it may revolutionize, but for now, he said, "it feels like an evolution, in a good way."
Brock agreed. 5G builds on a solid foundation of 4.5G (which will also be around for a long time), he said, and will be like that for four or five years. Data requirements grow every year, as does the need to reduce costs. "The evolutionary part is what we're seeing today. It's very early days. Where we really are is trial deployments," he said, noting the evolutionary factors include speed and the other capabilities inherent in the 5G spec.
"If it works, it's a deployment. If it doesn't work, it's a trial.” – Alexander Brock, Rogers
"If it works, it's a deployment. If it doesn't work, it's a trial," he quipped. "So it's very much an evolution on solid 4.5G. It builds on what those capabilities. It's designed to work with 4.5G. Dynamic spectrum sharing is going to be a game changer for the industry and the ability to share a spectrum between 4.5G and 5G networks for the first time, it's a massive change for the industry. And it's going to be a revolution."
"I would agree that it's both," said Kulkarni, "although I would bank more on the revolution side. But definitely there are many aspects such as the evolution from LTE advanced to 5G, which is very much evolution. The other thing that's an evolution is the non-standalone mode of 5G, where 5G can ride on 4G core." In addition, he said, fixed wireless is a very evolutionary use case.
On the revolution side, he pointed out 5G use cases won't arrive all at once. An early one he foresees is that of an automotive manufacturer who wants to flash infotainment systems as the vehicles move down the assembly line. With 4G, it's very difficult because of the volume of data to be transferred and the speed of the line, but with 5G it's quite do-able. He also sees remote controlled mining vehicles once 5G's low latency comes into play, as well as more deployment of robots in warehouses.
5G is not just another G, Brock added. It started with the question, "what do we want wireless to do that it couldn't do before?"
"That really was very much the heart of what was designed in the in the specifications," he said, "and so the use cases are built on a set of real capabilities, whether it be latency, which is something that people have been chasing for a long time. Once you can get below 20 milliseconds, a whole pile of new use cases suddenly show up in terms of ultra low latency and all the way down to sub 10 milliseconds opens up a whole new set of vistas in terms of capabilities that we've never been able to do with wireless before. The idea of being able to connect in a million devices per square kilometer, not going to happen in 3G or 4.5G; it simply wasn't designed around that. And so the evolutionary thought is that these are things that we could not have dreamt about doing."
From a security point of view, the change in topology of 5G networks changes the threat landscape, Newman said. The potential for denial of service attacks is huge.
“When you have one revolution, you have many, and I think we'll see this happen with 5G.” – Ian Fogg, OpenSignal
But, said Fogg, one thing we're struggling with is the fact that 5G isn't just one thing. "We think about a revolution, but in history there isn't usually one revolution. When you have one revolution, you have many, and I think we'll see this happen with 5G," he said. "I think we're all revolutionaries." He cited the debate around spectrum allocation and concerns that incumbents might be edged out.
"The most important thing about 5G in Canada is that it's about the country, not individual companies," he went on, "but about how it gets deployed, it's really important that this country realize that it is a question of everybody pulling together to have the best 5G services in this country, to get out there to get the infrastructure built, which involves partnerships with universities, which we've started to do.
“So it all has to come together. It's not just about a spectrum. It's not just about infrastructure. Revolutions are inherently unpredictable. People who start the revolution don't always end up in power. It means the telecom industry needs to get this right now."
Photo of (from left): Smith, Fogg, Newman, Brock and Kulkarni by Lynn Grenier.
